OMAHA, Neb. — Roman Martin and AJ Salgado drove in two runs apiece to guide UCLA to a 6-4 victory over a Murray State group making its Faculty World Collection debut Saturday.
The Bruins, within the CWS for the primary time since they gained the championship in 2013, constructed a 6-0 lead earlier than the Racers started chipping away at it within the center innings. UCLA nearer Easton Hawk pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to safe the Bruins’ fourth straight win in an Omaha opener.
UCLA (48-16) will play Monday evening in opposition to the winner of Saturday evening’s sport between No. 3 nationwide seed Arkansas and No. 6 LSU.
The Missouri Valley Convention’s Racers (44-16), solely the fourth No. 4 regional seed since 1999 to advance to the CWS, will attempt to preserve their first look going after they play Arkansas or LSU in an elimination sport on Monday.
Ian Might (8-3), the second of 5 relievers who adopted starter Michael Barnett, pitched an inning to earn the win.
The Bruins had been in full management early and improved to 27-1 when scoring first. They loaded the bases with no outs within the first inning in opposition to Nic Schutte (8-5). He gave up a success and issued three walks earlier than he settled down and obtained back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to maintain it 1-0.
Dean West singled in one other run within the second, and the Bruins added 4 extra within the fourth on a security squeeze bunt, base hit and Salgado’s two-run double.
Murray State ended the UCLA pitching employees’s streak of 20 2/3 scoreless innings when a sliding Jonathan Hogart beat Salgado’s throw to the plate on Carson Garner’s drive into proper discipline within the fifth. Earlier than that, the Bruins hadn’t allowed a run for the reason that second inning of their tremendous regional opener in opposition to UTSA.
The Racers added a run within the sixth and two extra within the eighth after placing runners on second and third with no outs. Consecutive RBI groundouts pulled them inside 6-4.
Hawk went to the mound within the ninth with a two-run lead and going through the center of the Racers’ order. He struck out Dustin Mercer, obtained Garner to floor out and fanned Dominic Decker to earn his eighth save.
